James Atto lives in Birmingham, but spends most days as “mayor” of the crunchy, salty, and savory-flavored realm known as Lentil Land.

“Self-appointed. There’s no voting for that,” Atto said with a laugh. “People ask me how’s it going and I say, 'It’s busy in Lentil Land.' My life revolves around lentils, so I consider everything I do in life is Lentil Land. That’s my livelihood right now.”

Atto reigns over the roasted lentil section of the snack food aisle in more than 100 stores in Michigan. He’s the founder and creator of ROSTED Crunchy Lentils, a roasted lentil snack made by his company, Simple Supple Foods. Gluten-free and made with just three ingredients, lentils, olive oil and spice, ROSTED Crunchy Lentils can be eaten out of the bag as a snack, used as a topping or mixed into other foods.

As National Snack Food Month, which was February, comes to a close, Atto talked about reinventing this soup-staple legume.

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James Atto is the king of roasted lentils.(Photo: Bill Bresler | hometownlife.com)

Q: Are you a snack food lover?

A: I like crunchy, tasty snacks that are strong in flavor. I love snacking and I am guilty as anyone about eating all the wrong food, chips and pretzels, and I decided to try and change it up. The only way it’s meant to even loosely resemble junk food is the good strong flavor and crunch.

Q:Is it easy to convince snack food lovers to try roasted lentils?

A: It’s not an easy a pitch as you might think. The core of our entire marketing strategy has been sampling at events, demos at the grocery stores that we’re in, sampling the product so they know what it is. The average snack consumer eating Doritos and pretzel pieces might not even sample it. It can be tough to get people to try something new in general, whether it’s healthy or not.

A: I want to say it was 2013-14 when I first came up with it. I tried making roasted lentils several times and I kept failing. Before I actually nailed it down, I gave up because I kept burning them or it wasn’t the temperature I wanted. Then I went to buy it because I was so sure someone had already created this product. I searched for several months and could not find anything like it, so I said maybe I should give this another try. I went back to the drawing board and got it how I envisioned it.

Q:Were you working under Michigan's cottage food law?

A:Yes. We started making a couple of pounds at a time at home. Then we were fortunate enough to be connected with a food incubator kitchen program that Eastern Market sponsored. That was held at the Garden Fresh kitchen in Ferndale. I started doing 40- and 50-pound bags. We did that for less than a year and then Campbell's acquired Garden Fresh and we lost access to that kitchen. We moved to Forgotten Harvest in Oak Park. They were providing production services for food entrepreneurs. That program was shut down ... we had a temporary place in Traverse City and that was shut down. We were really scrambling. We found this really professional, high-capability, high-volume facility in Battle Creek. Now we're doing 2,000-pound batches at a time.

Q:Were you working with lentils full time?

A: I still had my full-time job at the time. I was a customer service director at CrowdRise. When I got laid off, I pursued entrepreneurship full time.

Q:Are you working on other forms of snack foods or other uses for lentils?

A: We really want to establish ourselves as the first to do this product, the crunchy lentils, because no one else does it. We’re experimenting in terms of (research and development), but we want to keep our focus where it is, growing the brand and the product. We have a semi-sweet flavor we’ve developed, but we can’t launch it because we’re small and we don’t have a lot of financial backing. One thing we are looking for is some potential investors and equity partners that will help us grow, because it’s really hard to do when you are just funding it yourself. One of the things I’d like to do, and I can’t figure it out yet because I’m not a culinary wizard, is trying to make a lentil cluster.

Q:Are lentils profitable?

A: We sold $100,000 last year, which was my goal. Now, were we profitable? No. But hey, that was the goal, to get into 100 stores and sell 100 grand.

Q: Before lentils, were you a working musician?

A: Yes, I used to be a singer-songwriter. I played eclectic rock. It was something I did for 10 years out of college. I put out three CDs. Once I got into my 30s, I said it’s about time I settle down and find a real job. I worked for GM and then for CrowdRise. Sadly, because I’m so busy, I barely get a chance to pick up the guitar anymore.

Q:Have you ever written a song about lentils?

A: No one has ever asked me that. Most people in my lentil life don’t even know I play music. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of writing a jingle for the brand. Who better to write it than me, right?

Try ROSTED Crunchy Lentils 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Eastern Market in Detroit. Atto and his product also will be at V313, Detroit’s premier Vegan Celebration, 3-9 p.m. Thursday, March 8, at Eastern Market, and at VegFest from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 29, at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

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Western Market in Ferndale is one store that stocks Atto's roasted lentils.(Photo: Bill Bresler | hometownlife.com)